Hoodia and Coumadin: Potential Interactions & Safety Concerns

Question
Hello,

I am on coumadin and I would like to try Hoodia to decrease my appetite.  Although the bottle says there are no side effects, I found on a couple of websites that you should not take if you have clotting or bleeding disorders or are on blood thinners.  Another 7 or 8 websites did not mention this.  Is this a true statement?  Is there an interaction of hoodia with coumadin?  Also, if there is, would it be similar to other food interactions.  For example:  my doctor tells me that green leafy vegetables can affect my levels, but that if I want to eat them I can, I just have to be consistent.  Then, my medication can be adjusted to get my levels where they need to be.  Would hoodia work the same way - take consistently, then adjust your meds?  My family doctor does not know the answer and I have asked 2 more experts on this site - both in the alternative medicine section.  I can not get an answer.  I am hoping you can help me.  I just want to try hoodia to see if it will help with my sugar cravings. Thank-you.

Answer
Joanne,

No herbal or prescription medication is immune from untoward effects.  Drug-drug or drug-herbal reactions are far more common than first thought.  As drugs are used more and have been around longer there are new discoveries as to side effects and interactions.  Same holds true for herbals.  Those on coumadin need to be careful with sulfa drugs as they can cause and increase in bleeding time.  Same with Ginseng and Ginko.  Since Hoodia is relatively new on American shores time will tell as more cases are reported and more research is compiled on the topic.  However a reliable source:  Drugs.com reports:

http://www.drugs.com/hoodia.html that there may be interactions of concern.  Since pharmokenetics are slightly different from person to person it would be impractical to tell a person to reduce the intake by 40% say, to avoid a particular complication.  Best is to avoid all together when there are warnings in the literature.

Should you want to lear more about herbs (specifically Adaptogen herbs) in weight loss and wellness you can read my book: "Wonder Herbs: A guide to three adaptogens" available at www.xlibris.com/wonderherbs

Best of luck.

JP Saleeby, MD
www.saleeby.net